I’m not someone who measures school by counting down the days until my next break from it, but recently, I’ve felt like the weight of this semester has been getting incrementally more heavy — and I doubt I’m the only one. For the past couple of weeks, I’ve felt things like my sleep schedule and procrastination habits getting worse, which is how I found myself cramming for an exam far too late into the early hours of Sept. 18, the exam being that day.

I noticed a sore throat steadily building as I crammed, but I chalked it up to exhaustion. That Monday, I threw on a mask and went to my exam, my last-minute study technique doing me no favors. After the exam, I returned to my dorm, where I learned both of my suitemates were feeling similarly sick and sore-throated.

I was probably in a bit of denial when one of my suitemates speculated that we might have COVID. I thought for sure my sore throat was a product of my recent poor night’s sleep (which likely was a supporting factor), and that if anything, we might have the flu.

I wanted a break, but it wasn’t a good time to go into isolation. It was supposed to be my ‘catch-up’ week, where I got back on top of all my responsibilities. Part of me was content with having COVID and being forced to stay in my dorm, but another part of me hoped I’d wake up the next day without this sore throat so I could just get through the week.

Obviously, the immune system takes neither of those factors into account, and I know I’m incredibly privileged to think of potentially having COVID in terms of my academics instead of in terms of serious health risks. Nevertheless, my suitemates and I did end up testing positive, and we quarantined from then until that Saturday.

This isolation experience was my first time ever having COVID, and I went into it thinking it would be a nice break from classes and assignments for a few days where I could rest. It was, in a way, but it also drained me in different ways.

In my experience, COVID brain fog is very real, and it was difficult just to email my professors and let them know I wouldn’t be in class. I had to re-read my messages for typos an inordinate amount of times, and yet still one of my emails’ subjects still read “class todat.”

Procuring food became a challenge since three of the four of us couldn’t leave the dorm, and we often resorted to food delivery services since our friends who weren’t sick were still living the lives of busy Trinity students.

Coming out of isolation was a challenge as well. Impending midterms leave little much time for catch-up work, and it feels strange that even though my body got a break, I still feel like I need a mental one.